Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, from NPR.Los Alamos physicist and Laboratory Fellow Christopher Morris and other researchers think a subatomic particle called a muon can help answer the question of what happened to the nuclear fuel inside the Fukushima plant.
If muons can penetrate a subway tunnel, they can certainly pass through a nuclear reactor. That's why Morris thinks they can help at Fukushima.
"You can make something that looks like an X-ray, so you can take a picture of what's inside the reactor," he says. (Full Story)
Consultants seek to bridge ‘Valley of Death’ to stop hacking
For the first time, cybersecurity technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico will be made available to private companies by the New York consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP.The relationship between Los Alamos and EY is unique in that cybersecurity technology being developed and used at the lab hasn’t easily reached the private sector.
The U.S. spends about $1 billion a year on unclassified cybersecurity research. However, it often goes unnoticed in the private sector because federal researchers don’t have expertise in marketing and communicating to companies. (Full Story)
Quantum dot solar windows go non-toxic, colorless, with record efficiency
A luminescent solar concentrator is an emerging sunlight harvesting technology that has the potential to disrupt the way we think about energy; It could turn any window into a daytime power source.
"In these devices, a fraction of light transmitted through the window is absorbed by nanosized particles (semiconductor quantum dots) dispersed in a glass window, re-emitted at the infrared wavelength invisible to the human eye, and wave-guided to a solar cell at the edge of the window," said Victor Klimov. (Full Story)
Also from International Solar Magazine
Entrepreneurs, Los Alamos scientist seek fusion of another sort
David Fox, a LANL biochemist, with jars of “SCOBY," Journal photo.With help from a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, three young Santa Fe entrepreneurs are trying to brew a better beer – one that combines the professed health effects of kombucha fermented tea with the enjoyment derived from drinking an ice-cold adult beverage.
“It’s going to be a new class of beers,” said David Fox, a biochemist at LANL. “It’s still being defined, but what I think you’ll see in the end is a unique classification of beers … one you’re really going to like.” (Full Story)
Riboregulator controls gene expression
Molecular "dimmer" switch to control cellular metabolism, LANL image.Recent work by Los Alamos National Laboratory experimental and theoretical biologists describes a new method of controlling gene expression. The key is a tunable switch made from a small non-coding RNA molecule that could have value for medical and even biofuel production purposes.
"Living cells have multiple mechanisms to control and regulate processes—many of which involve regulating the expression of genes," said lead project scientist Clifford Unkefer of the Laboratory's Bioscience division. (Full Story)
Also from PhysOrg
The race for the unbreakable password is almost over
QkarD and engineered at Los Alamos National Laboratory. LANL image.The bandwidth issue could take years to fix. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are not only working on ways around it, but on how to reinforce our current data security with quantum mechanics. Last autumn, Los Alamos struck the biggest deal in its history with Richard Moulds’ parent company Allied Minds to commercialize these products.
Earlier this month, it unveiled a quantum-based generator that creates random numbers — the same random numbers that fuel passwords and other current forms of digital security. (Full Story)
Red Fireworks Might Not Contain Carcinogens
Red fireworks over Moscow, from Smithsonian.“Training areas get fallout [from flares] over and over again,” David E. Chavez, a chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, tells Everts. “It can be an issue for environmental clean-up.”
But making a less-toxic firework is one thing; getting manufacturers to change how they make their explosives is another. “It’s very challenging to go from something that works on the bench to something that works on a large-scale,” Chavez tells Everts. (Full Story)
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